In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

     Some people don't get it. They don't have a clue. Last week, our member, Elisa Thompson, who had just come to Ash Wednesday Holy Communion, and had received an ashen cross on her forehead, went to the grocery store. And when she was checking out, the clerk said, something to the effect, "Ma'am, where'd you get that nasty bruise on your forehead." Some people just don't get this Christian stuff. Kind of like the three people, nominally Christian, who went to heaven and met St. Peter at the pearly gates. St. Peter said, "Before you can enter into heaven, you have to answer a question correctly." So, he asked the first one, "Can you tell me what Easter is all about?" And the first one answered, "Easter.Easter.no, I can't say that I can." So, that person didn't get into heaven. St. Peter asked the second person, "Can you tell me what Easter is all about?" And the second person said, "Easter is about a bunny who comes into your house and brings chocolate and marshmallow eggs for all the good boys and girls." So, that person didn't get into heaven. St. Peter came finally to the third person, and said, "You know, you claim to be a Christian--can you please tell me what Easter is all about?" And the third person said, "Of course, I know what Easter's about. Jesus was arrested, tried, and crucified--and then he was buried in a borrowed tomb. Then, on Easter morning--uh--Jesus rose, came out of the tomb--saw his shadow and there were six more weeks of winter!"

     Some people just don't get this Christian stuff. Some people are clueless. The woman in the grocery store who had no idea that it was Ash Wednesday.the three people claiming to be Christians, wanting to get into heaven, but knowing nothing about the good news of Easter. And then, there's Nicodemus, a Pharisee and leader of the Jews--a fellow who should've known Jesus as the Messiah, and understood the heavenly things that Jesus was preaching and teaching about--and yet, when faced with it, Nicodemus didn't get it. In fact, Nicodemus seems to be clueless about anything that Jesus is telling him!

     Our Gospel lesson from John 3, is one of the most familiar passages in Holy Scripture. Of course, John 3:16 in this passage is most often remembered, but the entire interaction is one of the most important, not just in the gospel of John, but in the Bible as a whole. This Pharisee, Nicodemus, comes to Jesus by night, afraid that in the daylight someone might see him, and question why this Pharisee is talking with Jesus. Most Jewish leaders were keeping their distance from Jesus, coming to him only to trap him, or to try to trip him up. But Nicodemus seems to be genuinely curious--he seems to have some sincere questions about who Jesus is, and why he's here, and what he's preaching and teaching. Nicodemus suggests this, when he says to Jesus, in the dark of night, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Here, it appears Nicodemus DOES have, at least a clue, about Jesus--at least, Nicodemus acknowledges Jesus as rabbi--a teacher who has come from God--doing signs that could not be done apart from God. But then, Jesus tells Nicodemus something about God and the kingdom of God that leaves Nicodemus baffled. Jesus says, "Truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again"--born again is really what Jesus said, according to the Greek--not born from above, but literally, born a second time. And this is what confuses Nicodemus. He asks Jesus, "How can anyone be born again, after having grown old? Can someone enter a second time into the mother's womb, and be born anew?" Jesus' answer is intended to explain this to Nicodemus, but it seems the Pharisee gets more and more confused. Jesus said, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born anew, of water and the Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished--do not marvel, that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is," Jesus said, "with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

     And does this clarify things for Nicodemus? Does Nicodemus now, "get it"? Does Nicodemus respond to Jesus, exclaiming, "Now I understand!" No, now, Nicodemus says, incredulously, "How can these things be?" And Jesus answered, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?" And then Jesus goes on to point out, that Nicodemus is, in fact, an example of all the religious leaders in Israel--those who, Jesus implies, are spiritually blind--we would say they are clueless, because though Jesus has told them earthly things, and they haven't understood, now that he's telling them heavenly, spiritual things--how will they ever hope to get it? Nicodemus is just one of the Pharisees, one of the Sanhedrin--the Jewish religious establishment, but he is an example of how these supposed religious leaders, were lost, confused, unwilling to learn from THE Rabbi, Jesus, about the kingdom of God. Jesus, sees their blindness, and has been trying to enlighten them--hoping that they will be born again and anew, by water and the Spirit--by being, themselves, baptized into this new Kingdom Jesus is inaugurating. But--like Nicodemus, in spite of Jesus' teaching, they don't seem to be getting it. So, Jesus tries yet one more time, to explain who He is, and why He came, and what the Kingdom is really about, as He says to Nicodemus, "just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him." Here, Jesus makes it as clear as possible, why He was sent, why He came into our world, what was going to happen to Him, as he would be lifted up on the cross to be a sacrifice for the world--not, ultimately to condemn the world, but that through Him, those who believe would be saved. Could Jesus have been more explicit than here in these four verses in John chapter 3? It's hard to imagine. And yet, we hear nothing about Nicodemus' response. At the end of John, in the 19th chapter, we hear of Nicodemus again--providing spices for the burial of Jesus' body, and assisting Joseph of Arimathea with the task--again, secretly, for fear of the Jews. No more than that is said of Nicodemus. No other indication is given about whether Nicodemus finally got it, and understood Jesus, and believed in Jesus--or whether Nicodemus still saw Jesus as just a venerable, albeit obtuse teacher. Where St. John intends to leave us, then, is not wondering about Nicodemus, but wondering about ourselves, asking ourselves whether WE have, in fact, got it! After all Jesus' teaching about being born again and anew, by water and the Spirit--after Jesus has taught us these heavenly things; after Jesus has told us plainly that the Father sent the Son, so that He would be lifted up on the cross for our salvation, that we might not perish, but believe and be saved--do WE now understand and believe, or are we ourselves, clueless--blind, to who Jesus is, and why He came, and why He continues to come to us?

     That, really, is the question posed to us by our Gospel lesson today--not whether Nicodemus ever got it, but whether we get it. Whether the gift of Jesus on the cross as a sacrifice for sin, is meaningful to us, such that we have been, truly, reborn--born anew of the Kingdom of God, living, not carnal, earthly lives, but living lives as children of God--living lives that are full of the Spirit of God--living lives as the baptized sons and daughters of our Father in heaven? Do you get it? Or do you continue, as did Nicodemus, baffled, blind, asking, "How can these things be?"

     God so loves the world, that He has given His only Son. The Son has been lifted up on the cross, as Moses lifted up the serpent. Salvation is offered to all who believe. Do you get it? That's where our gospel lesson intends to leave us.and so, that's where I leave you. Asking, hopefully, "Do you get it?"

     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.